11-year-old Indian girl wins World Chess championship

By APD writer Rishika Chauhan

NEW DELHI, September 2 (APD) - A 11-year-old Indian chess player, created history by winning a gold medal in the Under-12 World Cadet Chess championship held in Pocos de Caldas, Brazil on Thursday.

Divya Deshmukh

Divya Deshmukh, from Nagpur, remained unbeaten throughout the 11 rounds and she ended with 9.5 points in the girls’ category, winning eight and drawing three games. She finished one point clear of Nastassja A Matus from the United States of America.

Rakshitta Ravi, another Indian player in the girl’s section won the eighth place at the championship. In the boy’s section, Rohith Krishna finished at the 11th place.

Deshmukh had previously won a gold in the blitz section, silver in rapid and bronze in the classic version in the Asian Youth Championship in Uzbekistan and she won the gold in the Commonwealth tournament in New Delhi in 2016.

According to a report published in the Hindustan Times, Deshmukh’s feat adds to her list of achievements. In 2014, she won her first world title when she became the girl’s champion in the under-10 World Youth Chess Championship in Durban, South Africa.

Earlier, Deshmukh had secured the Under-10 Asian blitz event in early 2014 and also won the rapid and standard formats in the Asian Schools Championship in 2012. In 2013, she had become the youngest woman chess master.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)